She's The 'Queen' Of Fastpitch

June 20, 1986|by JOHN KUNDA, The Morning Call

There's a story about a women's softball pitcher, Joan Joyce, now retired, who once pitched against Ted Williams.

Supposedly, she threw three straight fastballs at the legendary Williams, two of which Williams missed by three feet. The other was out of the strike zone. The third pitch, a riser, caught Williams swinging at air again.

Williams, the story goes, got so frustrated that he threw the bat down the first baseline and walked away. End of the exhibition.

The modern Joan Joyce is a tall, willowy blonde, Kathy Arendsen, and she, too, had her fling against major league baseball sluggers. Her most recent exhibition was against another former Red Sox star, Carl Yastrzemski, and the best Yaz could do was foul off a couple of her pitches.

Joan Joyce's accomplishments may have been forgotten because Joyce was from a different era. Kathy Arendsen, now 27, is still going strong and her name is synonymous with women's fastpitch softball. She is the game's reigning queen.

Arendsen and her internationally known team, the Hi-Ho Brakettes of Stratford, Conn., will be in Allentown Sunday for two games againstthe Allentown Patriots women's team. The games are scheduled for 12:30 and 2 p.m. at Patriots Park.

Joan Moser, who manages the Patriots, says, "fans of women's softball are in for a treat . . . Kathy Arendsen is truly one of the great women's softball pitchers of all time."

Arendsen may be a treat for those sitting in the stands, but for the women she's pitching to, it usually is sheer frustration. The Patriots themselves experienced that just last weekend on a trip to Connecticut. Arendsen pitched a 2-0 shutout in one part of the doubleheader after her teammate, Barbara Rinaldi, threw a 6-0 shutout in the other.

"Barbara Rinaldi isn't a bad pitcher, either," said Moser, pointing out that she expects the Brakettes to pitch the same two pitchers on Sunday.

Arendsen is women's fastpitch star attraction, much like Jack Nicklaus in a golf tournament or Meadowlark Lemon in a basketball exhibition. Her record speaks for itself - 202 wins and only 20 losses in an eight-year career with the Connecticut team.

Arendsen is 6-2 and, according to softball experts, her fastball matches that of Nolan Ryan. She also has a sinker that would make Tommy John envious.

"Kathy's long arms make you feel like she's right on top of you when you're hitting," says Jackie Gaw, a Brakette teammate who is an All-American designated hitter.

At the National Sports Festival in Syracuse five years ago, Arendsen talked about her role as a "promoter" for women's softball. She is aware that the attention she gets is good for the game, but, at the same time, she rarely forgets to mention the contribution factors to her personal success.

"Without a good defense and a good catcher, I'd be in big trouble," she said.

After watching her pitch, you wonder why she needs players behind her. Not too many balls are hit to the infielders, let alone into the outfield. She's the women's answer to Eddie Feigner.

Arendsen's effectiveness comes from her blazing fastball. She simply overpowers the hitters. Could she do the same in men's competition?

"I'm sure I couldn't overpower them," she said. "I'd have to be a finesse pitcher. I'd have to mix up my pitches."

Arendsen has a variety of pitches: the drop; the rise and a changeup; but it is the fastball that dazzles the hitters.

In the stamina department, Arendsen hasn't changed much in the last five years. She says she could pitch forever. She says she could pitch every day and it wouldn't bother here. "Softball pitching is a natural motion," she said, "so it's not as tiring as overhand. Once I pitched five games in one day."

Once she went the route in a 16-inning game and later said, "I could have gone on forever . . . once I'm in the groove, I have little problem." The Brakettes have an almost unbelievable string of national championships. Since 1958, they've won the national title 19 times and finished as runnersup seven other times.

"The Best in the World" is what the Softball World News calls the Brakettes.